The number of people visiting a library at least once a year has dropped by 25% since records began in 2005-06, as the the number of libraries has declined by 9% between 2005 and 2012.

In the The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) latest Taking Part survey (pdf), which measures public engagement with sports and the arts, 63.8% of people said they had not used a library in the year to the end of June 2013, compared with 63.0% in 2011-12, and 51.8% in the 2005-06 survey. In the past year, 16.1% of adults used a library website, up from 8.9% in 2005-06.

According to a DCMS spokesman, the decline in visits predates recent library closures, and reflects changes in the public's behaviour.

"This has pretty much been a year-on-year decline, so it has been a steady pattern," he said. "People change, and the way that they want services changes. Libraries need to evolve, and to offer relevant services."

The decline in library usage came as no surprise to the library campaigner and children's author Alan Gibbons, who described it as the inevitable result of recent governments' "neglect of the public library service".

For Gibbons, responsibility for the decline in library usage rests with central government.

"What we need now, and have needed for over a decade, is some sort of strategic vision," he said. "The secretary of state Ed Vaizey should fulfil his statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient service."

• The fall in people making yearly library visits from 48.2% to 36.2% was wrongly calculated as an 11% decline in library usage. This has been corrected